Cadence
by sweethoneyjazzeuphoria
Summary: The one thing Wash missed the most about Project Freelancer was having a squad to march with. Once they found cadence, it was like a soothing heartbeat he could always rely on. But now there's only two Freelancers left, as far as he knows. Will he be able to find cadence again, and with Carolina of all people? One-Shot. Rated T for slight language at the end.


CADENCE

' _One. Two. Three. Four. Five…'_

Wash sat on the roof of their temporary home in an out-of-the-way developing city on Chorus, in civvies for once, counting his heartbeats in the light of the setting sun. The fact that he could still do this honestly astounded him. He knew it was all down to pure, dumb luck and Dr. Gray's skill in medicine that he was even alive _and_ that he could still talk. He reached up to brush his fingers over the still healing scars on his neck. The lucky bullet had missed his arteries my _millimeters_ and he was lucky that Dr. Gray found it easy to repair his trachea. He still had a cough every once in awhile, but other than that he had recovered fully.

"Hey. I thought I'd find you up here," Carolina's voice sounded from behind him, "How dare you hide and not take me with you."

He chuckled and turned, watching her settle down beside him, "It's hard enough for one person to slip past them, let alone two."

"You're a highly trained super soldier Wash, you should be able to handle a few sim troopers," she teased with a grin.

"Oh please. You can't honestly tell me that it doesn't take all of your Freelancer training to avoid them. I know you used to have Epsilon dedicate some of his processing power to just that task alone. Plus, I've got it worse with Caboose," Wash rolled his blue eyes at her and smirked.

"Okay, okay. You've got me on that one," Carolina chuckled.

Wash let his own light laughter peter out and looked his friend over quickly. It wasn't that he was checking her out, he would never (or so he told himself), but she looked really different in civvies. Free, loose, almost relaxed even in the quiet moments like these. Her hair had been re-dyed recently back to her favored rust red, hanging loose around her shoulders. It contrasted against the dark gray t-shirt she wore, which had _Washington_ written in cursive on the front.

Caboose and Tucker had found it in a store when they were on Earth shortly after defeating the Blues and Reds, and had gotten it for Wash to give to Carolina on her birthday. However, Wash was still recovering when they threw a birthday bash for her, and hadn't even known about the present. He still remembered being confused as all hell when she read the tag with his name on it (he hadn't been able to get her anything, being confined to Dr. Gray's tender mercies, but was planning on getting her something belatedly), then turning redder than Sarge's armour when she laughed and turned the shirt around for everyone to see. Tucker, who had been sitting next to him, leaned down with a shit-eating grin and whispered, "You're fucking welcome."

In the present, an amused giggle from Carolina had him realizing he had been staring for probably far too long. His blue eyes met her green ones briefly and he immediately threw his gaze into his lap, blushing furiously. Damn his pale complexion, he couldn't hide a blush for the life of him.

"Sorry. I'm just surprised you actually wear that thing," he said quietly, "You know I wasn't actually the one who got it for you, right?"

"I know, but I like it. Besides, my 'I-heart-New-York' shirt was starting to get worn out," she smiled, looking down at her shirt and tugging on it a bit.

That red on her cheeks had to be the light reflecting off her red hair, right?

"Oh. Uh. Okay," he said awkwardly, not really knowing what to say next.

Carolina turned to watch the sunset again, and he did too, closing his eyes against the light again and leaning back on his hands. He tapped his finger in time with his heartbeats again.

' _One. Two. Three. Four. Five…'_

"What are you doing?" Carolina asked suddenly.

"What?" he questioned.

"The tapping. I've noticed you do it a lot," she gestured to his hand.

"Oh. Well, I'm counting cadence," he replied, heat rushing to his cheeks again.

"To what?" she asked.

"My… um… my heartbeat," he ducked his head, "My drill sergeant in basic taught us about how important it was to keep cadence while marching and listen to find it. He said that when we marched in perfect unison, we had found the heartbeat of the squad and that we could do anything together like that.

"I always liked marching with the other Freelancers, getting that heartbeat from perfect cadence. It made us actually seem like a cohesive team for once. Family, almost."

"Wow, Wash. I never knew… I've never thought about marching that way," Carolina breathed.

"Yeah, well, there wasn't much point to mentioning it when everyone else hated marching. They all thought it was a waste of time," he shrugged.

"It wasn't. Marching lead to discipline and cohesion, as you put it. Looking back, we probably should have done it more," Carolina reasoned sadly, "Maybe if you had told us what you thought of it, we wouldn't have fallen apart so easily,"

"Maybe. Or maybe what happened to us was just… meant to happen," Wash looked off into the nearly set sun, tapping away to his heartbeat absentmindedly.

A gentle hand resting over his stopped his finger from moving and he turned to look at Carolina, who was looking down at their hands.

"David… What happened with Freelancer… I don't want us to fall apart too," she murmured.

Shifting his weight, he lifted his free hand to her cheek, gently guiding her to look up at him, "I don't think we will," he brushed her bangs out of her face with featherlight touches, "We don't need to march to find our own cadence. After all, we already have heartbeats."

She smiled in a way that the expression actually reached her green eyes, something he had found to be a rare occurrence, and he couldn't help but smile back. If anyone ever asked him, he would honestly say he couldn't tell who kissed who first, it just happened. One moment they were smiling and the next her smile was pressed against his, sweet and soft and oh so perfect. She kissed him in a way he had never been kissed before, and he kissed her back like it was what he had been born to do.

He slipped his hand from under hers and wrapped it around her lower back, pulling her body over his as he laid back onto the concrete rooftop. The hand that had been holding her cheek slid to rest between her shoulder blades, holding her gently to his chest. He could feel her fingers tangling in his dirty blond hair that was just too long to be called regulation. Her mouth opened against his and her prodding tongue was met with his own.

He could practically feel blood and life rushing through him at the mere perfection of it all. The way she kissed his with what he swore was love, the way their bodies fit together so well, the way their hearts beat together through their shirts. This was what he had been missing. This was the cadence he had been yearning for. He could do anything here, in this moment where he completely, utterly belonged. He was finally home.

And then, she pulled away from their kiss with a wicked grin on her face, prompting a pitiful whine to be made in the back of his throat.

"You know, I'm really glad Gray had to shave off your beard when you went in for surgery," she teased.

"Oh, just shut up and kiss me," he groaned, leaning up to swallow her laughter in another kiss.

 **A/N: Because it struck me and I am a huge Carolina/Wash shipper. Maybe I'll continue this if people like it (I really want to see what kind of adventures the Reds and Blues would get into with Freelancer babies in the picture), but this will be a oneshot for now. Sidenote: the idea of marching cadence being a heartbeat was told to me when I was an ROTC cadet marching with my flight. When we finally managed to find perfect cadence, it was a really proud moment that stuck with me. I hope you all liked it in this context. Thanks for reading!**

EPILOGUE:

"See Tucker! I told you Carolina and Wash were taking their relationship to the next level!" Caboose hissed, for once understanding the need to be quiet and not interrupt the two smooching Freelancers.

"Yeah, well without me, Wash would never have gotten laid like this," Tucker grinned, only slightly louder than Caboose, "Bow-chicka-AW FUCK!"

Both Blues screeched and dodged a barrage a bullets coming from Wash and Carolina's direction. The shots silenced once the two sim soldier had been driven off, screaming as they high-tailed it to the 'refuge' of the reds.

Wash stared up at Carolina, suddenly wondering how safe he was underneath her as she placed the pistol down beside them far enough to not be close, but still within reach. She looked down at him and grinned, only giving him a few chuckles as explanation for her actions.

"I'm not sure whether that was funny, or hot," he commented lightly after a handful of speechless seconds, "And where the fuck did you even get that from."

"I have my ways," she crooned before sealing their lips together again.


End file.
